“So, what do you want to do with our vacation time?” Gleipnir asked in the most non-nonchalant way possible. Then he gave Sam a quick worried glance before sticking his ‘head’ out the window again. They were on their way back to Sam’s apartment in a not seedy, per se, but definitely cheaper part of town. Hint, it was not on Manhattan like her parents and her lucky jerk of a younger brother.

Being on the cheaper side of the river, she hoped that it hadn’t fared as badly as many of the buildings on the island. But if the damage to the buildings she was driving past was any indication, well, her hopes were sliding lower and lower by the mile. It just wasn’t fair. Her sentient pact item – and best friend – had said he would keep a nose out for the scent of any monsters. To facilitate this he had turned point side down and stuck his new ‘head’ out the window, letting the wind blow through the red ribbon of his ‘hair’ as he ‘sniffed’ for corrupted magic.

Sam covered her eyes briefly and winced as Gleip took a deep theatrical sniff of the light breeze their slow pace through damaged neighborhoods generated. Then she seemed to abruptly remember that she was, in fact, currently driving and needed to keep her eyes on the road. Just in time both hands returned to the correct places on the steering wheel and she corrected the slight course deviation that had occurred while she was indulging in self-pity that sometimes Gleipnir was over-the-top weird.

“Do you have to stick your head out the window to keep an eye out for monsters? Not that I’m expecting any.” She added drily as they passed another group of soldiers providing relief assistance, passing out water bottles and canned goods.

“It works best if the old sniffer has direct access to the air, my good Sam.” He responded with the Gleipnir equivalent of a deadpan straight face. Sam glanced at him again and he turned his wide jumbo googly eyes – which he had adjusted to now be near the ribbon end of his giant needle-like body – and blinked at her innocently. Then he grabbed the pair of googly eyes – which were connected together somehow - with his ribbon, and adjusted how hey sat on his ‘face’ as the wind from the window was fluttering them and they weren’t staying put well.

“Okay.” Once again, Sam rubbed a hand over her face, taking care not to cover her eyes this time. “Okay.” Where this sniffer was or how it worked, Sam didn’t know. What she did know was that it was there. It was part of him, and it definitely existed.

Gleipnir smiled at Sam’s acceptance and went back to contentedly taking deep ‘sniffs’ of the air out the window with his shortened red ribbon trailing along the side of her car. Not that he really smiled. It was an aura of smiling. An essence to his being that gave Sam the impression that Gleipnir was smiling.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Maybe it was a warlock and sentient pact item thing, but she could read Gleipnir’s expressions as if he had a human face. So, it was a little off-putting and weird when he wore fake facial features. But also kind of cool because they worked without being enchanted. Point in fact, the googly eyes he was currently wearing, shouldn’t have been able to blink and move. They just did when he wore then and there was no explanation for it. Speaking of which…

“Hey, Gleip?”

“Yes, Sammy?” He paused in his monster sniffing to once again turn at her to blink and she compressed her lips in a tight amused smile.

“Where did those googly eyes come from? I thought you’d lost all your face pieces.” Because she threw them out whenever he left them lying around the apartment. There had been fights. She was sick of stumbling over fake noses, rubber lips, and… It was a thing between them. He needed to learn to clean up.

“Oh, these?” The needle-ribbon whatever he was pulled his ribbon back into the window to gesture at the almost fist sized set of eyes balancing tenaciously on his inch thick body. “I remembered that I had them stashed in the back of your desk from months ago in case the pair I had been wearing at the time was damaged in the line of duty. I snagged these while you were sleeping.”

“That explains… wait a minute? How did you get into my desk drawn while I was sleeping against it?”

“Oh, Sam.” He waved a curly, end of his ribbon at her and swirled it around in tight complicated whorls and spirals. “I’m extremely flexible.” He paused and went back to looking out the window before commenting, “And strong.”

“Right.” She pulled into the underground parking facility for their complex and Gleipnir stiffed his relaxed and cheery aura turning to one of concern and attention.

“We’ve got monsters. Maybe magical creatures. Not exactly sure. Not particularly dangerous, but definitely somewhere in the building.” That sunk Sam’s mood even lower as she slammed the gears into park and added her parking break for good measure.

“Great. Let’s get this over with. Maybe we can go back to sleep if it’s fast enough.”

“Ha, haah.” The characteristic laugh of Gleipnir’s amusement was dry and irritated. “Are we ever that lucky?” The pair exited the car in the dimly lit parking structure. Someone had placed additional magical emergency lights powered by the higher-than-average ambient magic density and shadows crisscrossed one another in the pale yellow glow. Gleipnir fumbled with his googly eyes tucking them away somewhere that Sam couldn’t see as she tucked her purse over her should and locked her car with a beep.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky this time and it’s somebody else’s problem. Lead the way, oh great sniffer.” However, Sam was not feeling lucky and a little pit of dread boiled up from her pelvis to her belly.